“Why are you sweating?” the prince greatly wonders as he sees Gabriel’s return.
“The great flight of stairs, your Highness,” he replies.
“Oh really?” the prince’s curiosity piques on. “It is the first time you are sweating rocks. Something must have happened.”
“It is nothing at all, your Highness,” Gabriel answers in haste. “I believe we should go see the adviser now,” he pivots the topic.
“Yes,” the prince surreptitiously and silently smiles. “I believe we should go.”
Shortly after their small conversation, Gabriel and Prince Julien arrive at the Grand Library for the prince’s lessons. Inside, a sage with a great beard sits at the center of the grand array of large shelves filled with all sorts of texts, manuscripts, books, and scrolls. The old man sits with a sophisticated posture. He studies a large map which shows the great continent of Euranis.
“Esteemed adviser and strategist,” the prince bows. “I have come for my lessons.” He sits down in front of him, and Gabriel positions himself at the side. He stands directly to the left of the prince, before a large shelf nine steps away.
“You go out to hunt, one fine morning,” the old man starts narrating. “You find two hares, but as they see you, they quickly flee. One runs to your left, while the other runs to your right. If you focus on one, you will lose the other. What will you do to capture both?”
“I will pursue the first one and use my sword to prevent its escape. While I shall use my crossbow to shoot the other,” the prince replies.
Gabriel nods in satisfaction to the prince’s response. He is confident that the strategist would be pleased with his reply.
“Foolishness,” the old man’s voice resonates throughout the inaudible library.
“What,” Gabriel shouts and clears his throat afterward.
Prince Julien, meanwhile, is unfazed by the negative response. He is still no match for the greatest mind in Gallia, and perhaps he is still a hundred years too early to give the most appropriate response.
“My prince,” the strategist says with a stern voice while holding figurines of people. He puts them across the map laid before him, “This is the kingdom of Gallia, to its left is Allemagna, and to its right, Essenia.”
“Suppose that we are at war with these two nations,” he continues. “However, we already defeated both of their armies. Their remaining forces are marching back to their homeland. If you attack the Allemagnan army you will be unable to attack the Essenians, and vice versa. Thus, you must focus only on one army and one army alone,” he slams the table where the map lays. The pieces of the armies all fall. “If you focus on both, you end having little to no chance to decimate even one.”
“My prince,” he calms down, “if you run after two hares, you will catch neither. You must only focus on things at once.”
Gabriel’s satisfaction with the strategist’s response soars. A moment of enlightenment illuminates his mind. The prince smiles as he looks at the strategist.
“Here is another riddle,” the strategist speaks. “You have to pick between two things a sword and a shield. The sword could cut anything in this world. While the shield could defend against any weapon in the world. Which will you pick?”
The riddle greatly puzzles Gabriel who listens from the sidelines. How could a sword cut anything in this world if a shield can defend against it? And how could a shield defend against anything if a sword could cut anything?
The prince remains silent and thinks for a while. His thoughts reach far and wide in search of an answer. Finally, he thinks of one.
“I choose nothing between the two,” the prince replies. The strategist stays quiet maintaining eye contact with the prince. “The two signifies a contradiction. If there are contradictions, then there are lies. If so, then one or both weapons are lies. This riddle is not a matter of choosing the right weapon, but by thinking outside the box and from another angle.”
“Splendid!” the strategist nods in agreement. “That was to test your judgment. You have fine judgment, my prince.”
The lessons continue until high noon. The three then take their lunch. They all ask for their leave, going their separate ways. Gabriel and the prince heads to the Royal Dining Hall, where the servants and maids arrange the dishes and meals for lunch.
As the prince enters the Royal Dining Hall, he sees the second prince and the first princess talking across the table. The king and the queen are still absent. The maids, butlers, and servants are busy preparing the table.
“Lord Brother,” the 15-year-old blonde-haired first princess says to him. “I hear you picked up a stray cat as your new butler.”
“Stray cat?” the prince laughs at the thought. “If you continue to disrespect people like that, no one will like you anymore, Camille. That ‘stray cat’ will become dearer to me than you will ever be if you continue to be mean. Maybe I’ll even treat you like garbage and throw you from the palace when I become king.”
“How mean,” the first princess whines in a high-pitched note.
“Silence, Camille,” the second princess intervenes. “Lord Brother, please be more lenient to her as she is but a child.” The 18-year-old prince is as just and righteous as his brother says. He looks up to Julien. They have the same features. Too similar that sometimes, when Prince Louis imitates his brother’s hairstyle, they are mistaken to be the other prince.
“Louis, please,” Prince Julien pats his shoulder, “Royals who do not know the true value of their subjects are not worthy of their title.”
Prince Julien always has a great sense of justice and uplifts the sake of his people more than his royal lineage. But for some reason, he has this special feeling that makes him feel playful towards Gianni.
“I am well aware of Camille’s shortcomings,” Prince Louis replies. “But I am quite certain that she will learn her ways, so please be lenient to her at the present.”
“The more I allow her to be disrespectful, the more she will grow to be disrespectful,” Prince Julien answers. “A small fire, with the opportunity of growing into a blaze result in an inferno.”
Princess Camille scoffs. She purposely drops a porcelain teacup from the dining table, breaking it into pieces.
“Do I seem all right to you? Idiot,” she screams at the top of her lungs. “Clean up this mess now.”
“My, my,” the door flings open revealing the queen’s attendants. Inside comes the queen, wearing a red ball gown. All over the dress, golden carnation embroideries are numerous. She wears a golden crown shining brilliantly as the stars of the night sky. Her posture is perfect. Her poise is immaculate. She walks slowly to the seat beside the first princess and across the first prince.
As the queen approaches, the other royals stand up on their chairs and watch as she walks. They do not sit until she sits.
“Your Majesty,” the princes and the princess bow as she sits down.
“What is all the commotion about?” the queen speaks in a manner that radiates grace.
“Mother,” the first princess holds her arm, “Lord Brother bullied me.”
“Really?” the queen answers. “What did he tell you?”
“He said that the stray cat he took in is dearer to him than I am.”
“Oh,” the queen laughs graciously, “that is normal. As you may know, the duchess is my sister, yet you are dearer to me than she is. In the same way, your brother will have someone dearer to him in the future than we will ever be. At that moment, all we can do is support him.”
The queen is wise, clever, and beautiful. Their subjects and other royals of the continent refer to her as the perfect queen. Beautiful, smart, kind, and just.
“Spare us from the drama dear,” the queen laughs but the two princes knew what their father would say if he heard of this. The king favors the first princess more than the two princes. Like how a father dotes on his daughter. The wickedness of the first princess is said to be from the king’s great temper and impatience. Although, the king possesses a great sense of justice and wisdom, which Camille does not have.
The maids and servants finish preparing the table. The royals wait for the king to arrive. Then, a butler comes telling them that he has an important appointment with the Essenian ambassador, so he must skip lunch.
Upon hearing this, the princess whines even more than before. Her annoying voice fills the dining hall, and every person there even the princes and queen covers their ears. She continues whining until the queen consoles her.
“Now that everything is taken care of, shall we eat lunch?” the queen says as a butler places the appetizer on her plate. The other royals do not start eating until their mother started as a way of showing respect to the authority of the queen.
They make their way through every course. When they finish eating the main dish, Prince Julien remembers Gianni. He calls Gabriel and instructs him to wake the former to eat. And so, Gabriel leaves the dining hall going straight to their room, where a naked Gianni soundly slumbers.
Gabriel enters their room. He slowly and swiftly makes it back. As he holds the steel doorknob, he feels a different kind of heat emanating from his chest. He slowly opens the door, and there he witnesses a sleeping Gianni with a bare top. Before he left, he knew he covered all of him. Surprisingly, Gianni moves a lot when sleeping. He slowly approaches Gianni. He hears the slow and constant breathing that the peaceful sleeper makes for every step he makes. The room is quiet, and only Gianni’s breath is audible. As he gets even closer, he feels warmer. He continues, making his way to Gianni’s bedside. “Gianni,” he clears his throat, “the prince wishes that you take your lunch.” But Gianni does not hear him. He repeats it a little bit louder, but the same result shows. He pats Gianni’s shoulder and tries to wake him up. But Gianni is a heavy sleeper, or so he thinks. This time, he shakes Gianni. His sweat drips from his forehead to Gianni’s chest. He panics at the sight of his moiste
“Let me finish that, your Highness,” Gabriel puts the horseback outfit on a table and wipes the prince. “It looks like your lower undergarments are also wet, we should replace them, Your Highness.”“Yes, you should,” the prince concurs. “Gianni got them wet.”“What,” Gabriel turns to Gianni, “what were you doing while I was gone?”“Nothing,” the prince laughs.Gabriel gets a lower garment from the closet, where he took the fencing suit. The prince bids both butlers to leave the room. And they obey.“What were you doing while I was gone?” Gabriel asks bluntly. “And why were you stumbling on your back the moment I came back?”“I was just wiping his Highness,” Gianni whitely lies. “Nothing happened, honestly.”A knock from the partition then breaks the two’s conversation. The prince finishes wearing eq
After seeing the second prince, Gianni takes a quick peek at the dining hall. He looks for the prince he serves but to no avail. Thus, he heads to Prince Julien’s room.As he comes closer to the door, he notices some maids looking at him, whispering. He thinks something is strange, which is worth inquiring about. But he reserves it for another time and continues his way to the first prince’s room.Upon entering, his olfactory catches the scent of carnation wafting throughout the air. The fresh fragrance of the flower fumes in fickleness. It is a familiar scent to Gianni, perhaps too familiar.As he goes inside, no one is there. But he hears two people talking and splashes of water. He sees the prince’s messy bad and fixes it. He then goes to the source of the splashing sound.Behind the folding screen directly on the opposite corner of the prince’s bed is an open door where the sound is coming from. Gianni approaches the door and h
After eating lunch, the princes, and the princess along with their attendants return to the Grand Library. Beyond the center from the entrance is a space that has chess tables. It is on the opposite corner of the round table and is said to be the most comfortable part of the library according to the librarians.Upon arrival, they see Queen Sophia already waiting for them. She has her maids arrange all the chess tables with their pieces. The adviser and some scholars are also present.“Your Majesty,” all bows to the queen as they approach.“At ease,” she sits on the chess table nearest to them. “Camille, dear, let’s play, shall we?”“Me?” she turns to her brothers, the adviser, and the scholars but all shifted their focus elsewhere. “Fine.”The queen and the princess start their game. Meanwhile, Prince Louis approaches Prince Julien to ask him for one game. Julien agrees and the two p
The door to the prince’s room suddenly opens. The two who are in a seemingly awkward position on the bed pervades with aghast. It is Gabriel who carries a tray with a pitcher full of water and glasses. When he enters, he fails to notice the two on the prince’s bed, as the curtains that hang from its pillar keep the two from being seen from the door. Gabriel places the tray on the prince’s study table.Quickly, Gianni jumps out of bed and closes the buttons of his shirt. The prince, meanwhile, just pretends to be asleep.Gabriel knows something is going on. The loud silence of the room is strange. He checks the right side of the bed and sees Gianni in the act of buttoning his garments.“What are you doing?” Gabriel says as he approaches Gianni.“G-G-Gabriel,” Gianni quickly finishes, “two of my buttons got loose.”“Oh,” Gabriel has his doubts and sees the prince sleeping on his bed, &
Early in the morning, Gabriel, and Gianni packs for a three-day trip. The prince orders them to do so, saying it is a special occasion for the royal family. Gianni does not have any bags so he asks Gabriel if he can borrow one from him. But Gabriel has only one bag, so, he proposes to share the bag between the two of them.During packing, Gabriel is a minimalist. He only puts what he needs inside the bag. Gianni, meanwhile, puts voluminous stuff inside which already makes the bag full even without his clothes. Gabriel is taken aback by what Gianni places inside. There are fruits and even pickles. When he tells Gianni to pack only what he needs, Gianni laughs at the thought. He used to have so much luggage back when he was young because he has people carry it for him.Of course, Gianni belonged to the prestigious Saint-Amour family, he was born with a silver spoon, Gabriel thinks. However, Gabriel insists that he put only his clothes and things for hygiene. Gab
Shocked at what Louis declared, Camille insists that he lied, and he did bump their table. Julien slams the wall with his fist, ordering his sister to look at the tables.Louis explains what Julien demonstrates. The direction of the spill from their table is similar to the spill from the third table, which has its force originating from under the table. While the setup, which has been purposely bumped shows a different spillage direction. Even after hearing Louis’ explanation, Camille still insists that it is Gianni’s fault. She brands him a liar and clumsy.Annoyed and angered by her irrational sister, Julien slaps Camille definitively shutting her up. The slap comes as a great surprise to the young princess that she instantly feels humiliated. Her Lord Brother only argues with her, not once harmed her. But this time, she knows she went too far. Aghast storms the emotions of everyone present in the auberge. Camille storms off grabbing Ethan’s hand.
The carriage comes back for them as soon as it got dark. The coachman arrives to escort them back to the chateau. Gianni is about to stand and leave when Louis bids him wait for a while.“Can I trust you?” the prince suddenly asks. “Can I trust you, Gianni?”“Yes, Your Highness. You can trust me.” Gianni obeys the prince, attentively listening to every detail that is about to come out of his mouth.“I’m in love with Princess Ariane,” Louis outrightly confesses. “All of the poems and songs that I made are all dedicated to her.”Gianni’s shock is unmeasurable. He does not know what his reaction should be to what the prince tells him. Should he be happy? Should he tell the prince that the marriage is already arranged? Should he support him? A lot of questions furiously fill his mind.Louis begs him to keep his confession a secret. Gianni finds it in his heart to keep Louis’